SPARTANBURG, S.C. (WSPA) – It’s been more than half a year since Lavell Lane died at the Spartanburg County Detention Center, and his family is still calling for more to be done.
“Basically, accountability is what I’m standing for, y’all monetary, I don’t want that, I want somebody to be held accountable for taking this boy’s life,” said Beverly Lane-Reese, Lane’s mother.
Lane was arrested and taken to the Spartanburg County Detention Center in October for jaywalking. According to jail records, Lane died about six hours after being booked into the detention center.
His family is claiming after being injected with medication there, he experienced neuroleptic malignant syndrome, or an NMS reaction.
“You are supposed to monitor someone that you induce that medication to,” said Lane-Reese. “No one monitored my son.”
Now Lane’s family, along with their legal team, have filed a lawsuit against the Spartanburg County Detention Center to view footage from the jail, but also to learn more about other cases that have happened recently.
“We want to find out more about what happened. We still don’t have the complete SLED (South Carolina Law Enforcement Division) file. We still don’t have the complete attorney general file. It’s critical that we get the videos Ms. Lane was talking about and that we watch the entirety of these videos,” said Christopher Pracht, the lawyer representing Lane’s family.
The Racial Justice Network said 16 inmates have died while in custody at the detention center in the last two years, with two being in 2023.
“There’s been far too many deaths in the Spartanburg County Detention Center and someone needs to be held accountable for it,” said Candace Brewer, president of the Racial Justice Network.
We reached out to the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office, which runs the detention center, but they said they cannot comment on pending litigation. We will update this story as we learn more.
